tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64650891138108269482018-03-19T12:11:42.126-07:00GeezerciseRichard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.comBlogger289125GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40https://feedburner.google.comSubscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with PageflakesSubscribe with PlusmoSubscribe with The Free DictionarySubscribe with Bitty BrowserSubscribe with NewsAlloySubscribe with Live.comSubscribe with Excite MIXSubscribe with Attensa for OutlookSubscribe with WebwagSubscribe with Podcast ReadySubscribe with FlurrySubscribe with WikioSubscribe with Daily RotationThe only true way to turn back the hands of time is to regain lost muscle and bone through strength-training, and Richard Sullivan can guide you through the process. It's not "effortless", but it's not so hard —and it is a life-changing experience.tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-41329258055559797062018-03-18T13:08:00.001-07:002018-03-18T13:08:16.844-07:00 When Older People Are More Swole Than Younger People — Watch The Shit Fly!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IBGyNB6SrCo/Wq7HHz6uGFI/AAAAAAAABfw/Gkn8Iaj_U8YiXVRUr-aE24ezzj9V7aA6QCLcBGAs/s1600/older%2Bswole%2Bguy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="280" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IBGyNB6SrCo/Wq7HHz6uGFI/AAAAAAAABfw/Gkn8Iaj_U8YiXVRUr-aE24ezzj9V7aA6QCLcBGAs/s640/older%2Bswole%2Bguy.jpg" width="426" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some underachieving younger males are freaked out by older men who, despite being double—or even 3 or 4 times—their age, have built physiques superior to what they themselves are wandering cluelessly around in. This seems to drive them absolutely crazy. Their go-to method of dealing with such humiliation is to claim, or more precisely, <i>accuse</i></span><span style="font-size: large;">, these older people of using steroids—you know, as if steroids all by themselves create amazing physiques.</span><span style="font-size: large;">&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">To not possess the intelligence to figure out that those of us who have worked out all our lives would obviously still retain what we have built over the years reveals the severe limitations of trolls’ intellect. That anyone would assume that, despite faithful adherence to a muscle-building diet and workout regimen, that when one happens to reach a certain age it all just disappears into thin air, or that the human body at some point in time loses its ability to respond, to strengthen, and to grow as a result of strength training, is just plain ignorant. Humans NEVER lose their ability to build muscle, even into our 100s.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Trolls also attempt to paint physician-prescribed HRT as something untoward, as some “unfair” advantage, when in fact HRT merely levels the playing field. Reestablishing one’s normal hormone levels equal to that of a 25 year old via doctor-prescribed pharmaceutical means is no less legitimate than reestablishing one’s glucose levels via insulin, or reestablishing bone strength via Vitamin D. Trolls work tirelessly to demonize HRT in desperate justification of their personal lack of commitment to achieving what they claim they desire—an outstanding physique.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Let’s not neglect factoring in as well the oddity that these overwhelmingly male sad sack trolls are searching out and spending hours on end on Youtube entranced by videos of attractive men, their farcical “no homo” disclaimers notwithstanding.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">If these creeps spent one tenth of the time in the gym that they waste online thirsting and lusting and despising, they would already have achieved the physique they’ve always dreamed of. The only people worse than trolls are those who buy into, and further spread, their particular flavor of poison.</span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/Eh63YHBxHxE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/03/when-older-people-are-more-swole-than.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-14018101711324607522018-03-17T11:42:00.001-07:002018-03-17T11:43:53.908-07:00The Illusion Of Food Deprivation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t9T_kWJ1zN0/Wq1g_GrdwkI/AAAAAAAABfY/DXiaDU08sM85UzS50ok8PXRsvUmerm0oQCLcBGAs/s1600/senior%2Bswole%2Bmuscle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="441" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t9T_kWJ1zN0/Wq1g_GrdwkI/AAAAAAAABfY/DXiaDU08sM85UzS50ok8PXRsvUmerm0oQCLcBGAs/s640/senior%2Bswole%2Bmuscle.jpg" width="470" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you diet or are cutting back on calories, carbs or whatever to attain a certain physical goal, such as losing your love handles, do you feel deprived? Most people answer with an emphatic “yes”. I will tell you why that is both wrong and counterproductive.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">You, the reader, if you’re being honest, can name 50 foods or more that you LOVE that you have not eaten in 6 months—or perhaps even years. Maybe one of these is a treat from your childhood from a locally-famous bakery, or something your late grandmother used to make. Do you feel deprived that you have not had these and other treats lately? No, you don’t. And not just because grandma’s gone and you haven’t been back to your hometown in years. It’s because you know you can’t eat 50-100 different favorite foods every day, due to factors like availability, logistics, calories and cost, as well as stomach capacity. It’s just not logical, realistic or healthy, and you fully realize that.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">We can get over our present feelings of deprivation by acknowledging this reality, that there are dozens and dozens of delicious foods we love but don’t even think about, so in that context, obsessing right now about potato chips or grease-puddled pepperoni pizza makes little sense.&nbsp;</span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">And why do people who claim feeling deprived because they can’t eat what they want in the quantity they want whenever the mood strikes NOT feel deprived because they don’t have the body or mobility or level of health they’d like to have?</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">&nbsp;Acknowledging that deprivation applies to both wants—both to food <i>and</i> to fitness goals, helps make the right choice, the more rewarding choice, easier.</span></div><div><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/BDWXhwZIMxg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-illusion-of-food-deprivation.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-39318872884397695772018-03-16T13:09:00.000-07:002018-03-17T14:43:29.401-07:00Why Your Personal Trainer Should Never Be “Hands-on”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GgN4n2diOXo/WqwiqnsyUSI/AAAAAAAABe0/x4zNccCeOV4ZjWYhpH4jKcfhEB3XryeVwCLcBGAs/s1600/wrong%2Bptrainer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="503" data-original-width="895" height="179" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GgN4n2diOXo/WqwiqnsyUSI/AAAAAAAABe0/x4zNccCeOV4ZjWYhpH4jKcfhEB3XryeVwCLcBGAs/s320/wrong%2Bptrainer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Personal trainer WRONG.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">(BTW, why is the client buffer than his trainer?)</div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Go to Google, search “personal trainers” and click “Images.” A troubling majority of the images that pop up show personal trainers (PTs) with their hands literally touching their clients, “guiding” and “helping”. This is a Red Flag.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hl89mi_H94o/Wqwi0poraZI/AAAAAAAABe4/NUysRZu-QBgMGCLRW5HSTNPIWNfJPOm0ACLcBGAs/s1600/right%2Bptraining.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="800" height="211" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hl89mi_H94o/Wqwi0poraZI/AAAAAAAABe4/NUysRZu-QBgMGCLRW5HSTNPIWNfJPOm0ACLcBGAs/s320/right%2Bptraining.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Personal trainer RIGHT.</div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;">No one requires another person to manually guide them through an exercise—especially on a gym machine, of all things! <i>Gym machines were designed in the first place to do exactly that,</i> to guide you through the exercise. They are designed specifically to guide you through the exercise based on, and mimicking, the classic free-weight version of the exercise. You can do biceps curls using a dumbbell in the classic manner, or you can hop on a fancy machine designed to guide you through performing the exact same exercise. The machine in essence <u>is</u> your personal trainer.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">So when I see PTs with their hands on the elbows of someone sitting in an overhead shoulder press machine for example, “guiding” the client through an exercise that the machine is already guiding the client through, it makes me crazy. “Push up with your hands as high as you can,” is the usual verbal instruction. Uh—<i>NO</i>, you don’t push up with your hands, you idiot, you “push up” by engaging and flexing your shoulders. It’s a SHOULDER exercise. Your hands have nothing to do with the exercise other than connecting you to the machine. Demanding the client focus on their hands rather than their shoulders during a shoulder exercise is an all-too common illustration of trainers' overall cluelessness.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Their main strategy of course is for the PT to create in the client a dependency upon them and their expensive service, to generate a psychological reliance within their client where none is actually required. Not only are these PTs' hands-on style completely unnecessary, this contrivance prevents the client from performing the exercise to full benefit, correctly and rewardingly, by compromising the client’s aptitude and potential.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">After my many decades of gym attendance I can state that 95% of all trainers I have observed going about their work are absolutely sub-par. No certificate can teach someone how to teach, as we all know from our school years: we can all name those teachers we have had who were amazing, and those who were useless, and yet both types had earned a teaching certificate.</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/2MJ9ESpIHAI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/03/why-your-personal-trainer-should-never.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-53692647152750578572018-03-12T13:22:00.001-07:002018-03-12T15:32:25.358-07:00Fat People’s Fixation On Diets That “Don’t Work”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P1CC1w--CFU/WqbhXtpqYII/AAAAAAAABec/qA0Abu6twO8JccaZPW7r5NvyRX8yoU4zQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-03-12%2Bat%2B10.20.42%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1190" data-original-width="1522" height="312" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P1CC1w--CFU/WqbhXtpqYII/AAAAAAAABec/qA0Abu6twO8JccaZPW7r5NvyRX8yoU4zQCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-03-12%2Bat%2B10.20.42%2BAM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">from salon.com</div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dear Fat People,</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">You’re fat because you use excessive consumption of bad food as a coping mechanism. Confront your problems head on, preferably with a good therapist, and you will no longer need to eat your problems.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">You’re welcome.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Signed,&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Me</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">To read continually the justifications of fat people, which never include personal responsibility or the acknowledgement that they have deep emotional problems that they soothe with large amounts of crappy food, reveals they just don’t WANT to get it. They are so spooked by the prospect of actually confronting the problems that cause them to eat excessively they go to absurd lengths to justify their fatness in other ways.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/03/11/the-media-is-lying-to-you-about-how-to-lose-weight/" target="_blank">This article on Salon.com by Matthew Rozsa is the exact sort that one can find daily online in which fat people refuse to face the facts about their food consumption.</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Predictably these writers focus on diets and how they never work. Well of course they don’t work, you morons—diets are&nbsp; temporary and unrealistic. Of course you’re going to gain back your lost weight when you return to the original diet that made you fat in the first place (2+2=4). It’s not about going on a temporary diet, fat people—it’s about changing your daily diet permanently because your current daily diet has obviously proven to be a fat-gain diet—because you’re <i>fat</i>.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">You might want to start by caring enough about yourself to learn how to cook a few things. The number of people who boast and laugh about not knowing how to cook, which means in fact they don’t have (and don’t care to have) the basic LIFE skills needed to keep themselves—and God help them, their kids—alive, is baffling. Depending on others to feed you rather than learning how to feed yourself is the epitome of self-sabotage.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Yeah, not being able to feed yourself is hilarious.</span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/P0iArmYc-qs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/03/fat-peoples-fixation-on-diets-that-dont.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-33174829240168042632018-03-12T12:28:00.001-07:002018-03-12T12:28:43.741-07:00Monday Geezer Inspiration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wr2kAayxZ3U/WqbUqzyjf_I/AAAAAAAABeE/xRaqPPnbkGYX-yiaw7MtdpHj-3Pg6eVJwCLcBGAs/s1600/GeezerInspire.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="978" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wr2kAayxZ3U/WqbUqzyjf_I/AAAAAAAABeE/xRaqPPnbkGYX-yiaw7MtdpHj-3Pg6eVJwCLcBGAs/s640/GeezerInspire.png" width="434" /></a></div><br /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/hsKDY-uIC3M" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/03/monday-geezer-inspiration.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-59605076896529776512018-03-10T12:36:00.000-08:002018-03-10T12:44:34.264-08:00Eating On A Schedule Is No Fun<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K1MZxPUKyVk/WqRBb5X_vAI/AAAAAAAABds/dAyg48Gs_8gI2VOerLja27MrBLSOKE0ZgCLcBGAs/s1600/arnold-diet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="614" data-original-width="1109" height="221" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K1MZxPUKyVk/WqRBb5X_vAI/AAAAAAAABds/dAyg48Gs_8gI2VOerLja27MrBLSOKE0ZgCLcBGAs/s400/arnold-diet.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Arnold: photo from Muscle and Fitness</div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">I</span><span style="font-size: large;">ntentional eating, as opposed to random eating, is one of the keys to muscle growth. Intentional eating means eating certain foods at a pre-determined time, day in and day out, for maximum results.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">We all know our bodies need certain nutrients to remain healthy and many people take vitamins and other mainstream supplements as a ‘fix” to make up for deficits in their eating regimen. Didn’t eat vegetables today? <i>Pop a multi-vitamin,</i> we think. Rather though, we should aim for obtaining our nutrients the old school way, via balanced nutrition.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The joy of eating comes from eating a food we love, a food &nbsp;that may or may not have much nutritional value. Comfort eating means eating what we want whenever we want or crave it. Intentional eating is the opposite of this. Eating eggs and oatmeal at 8:00 followed by a protein drink at 10:00 followed by chicken, broccoli and brown rice at noon—there’s little joy in that. But when such intentional eating produces previously elusive muscle-gain results, there is certainly a lot of satisfaction to be found looking in the mirror.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Our aim should be to make a list of nutritional foods that we actually like and enjoy eating from which to shop at the market. Protein, as an example, is found in many sources, both in foods we like—or even love, and in foods we avoid. Taking the time to Google nutrition facts from which to compile a shopping list is a wise investment in moving toward building a strong, healthy, attractive physique.</span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/rqRLfGNg5Vc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/03/eating-on-schedule-is-no-fun.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-74083678509396625152018-03-08T09:12:00.000-08:002018-03-08T09:18:09.104-08:00Getting Back To The Workout After Illness<div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9sP-s2ABS70/WqFwKdDs2yI/AAAAAAAABdU/qxaBqlHt1Ns0FdNt59tfIOtSSD91OZ_aACLcBGAs/s1600/Rich%2Blateral%2Braise%2Bw%253ADB%2B.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="395" data-original-width="432" height="365" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9sP-s2ABS70/WqFwKdDs2yI/AAAAAAAABdU/qxaBqlHt1Ns0FdNt59tfIOtSSD91OZ_aACLcBGAs/s400/Rich%2Blateral%2Braise%2Bw%253ADB%2B.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">For 15 years I was untouched by the flu. In all those years I had only one cold lasting three days. This year like most I had a flu shot, but nonetheless I contracted the flu anyway, and it hung on for over three weeks. The first four days I couldn’t even think of food, and for a week after that I had to force feed myself, as I was losing hard-won muscle fast. The ultimate tally was 7 lbs. of muscle lost. It took me more than a year to gain that.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">It’s sobering to see how quickly we can lose muscle, especially in relation to how long it takes and how much effort nutritionally and workout-wise it took to create that to begin with, but that’s life.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Getting back into it is a challenge in and of itself, as I am noticeably weaker and have diminished stamina. But as I learned earlier in life when this same thing happened, it takes less time and effort to reestablish stamina and strength and regain lost muscle than it did to establish and create it in the first place.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Since I am 15 years older than when this same set of circumstances was a factor, it will interest me how having aged 15 years since the last time this happened affects the process. This experience provides me with an experiment to see how quickly I can get back to where I was pre-influenza, and I will report on this as I progress.&nbsp;</span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/XBN2tirdKwU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com2http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/03/getting-back-to-workout-after-illness.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-72170355521715417212018-03-05T12:31:00.003-08:002018-03-05T12:34:38.536-08:00Monday Inspiration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-92M5gdm649I/Wp2pz8FD34I/AAAAAAAABc8/t64ufkLbj2AYzw_UP2WRwR3gLuVdIKH_gCLcBGAs/s1600/retromuscle%2B%25281%2Bof%2B1%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="633" data-original-width="551" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-92M5gdm649I/Wp2pz8FD34I/AAAAAAAABc8/t64ufkLbj2AYzw_UP2WRwR3gLuVdIKH_gCLcBGAs/s640/retromuscle%2B%25281%2Bof%2B1%2529.jpg" width="552" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">From retromuscle.com</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/UIrgipRz33Y" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/03/monday-inspiration.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-74336063402583888472018-03-05T11:48:00.001-08:002018-03-05T12:35:14.875-08:00Don’t Blame The Kids For Being Fat<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e7hLz4mzV6A/Wp2ekr_NccI/AAAAAAAABcY/kNMdNrfpEjIWUMgVm2_4hw8oJ_mxpZpIgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-03-05%2Bat%2B9.38.57%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="706" data-original-width="1214" height="228" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e7hLz4mzV6A/Wp2ekr_NccI/AAAAAAAABcY/kNMdNrfpEjIWUMgVm2_4hw8oJ_mxpZpIgCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-03-05%2Bat%2B9.38.57%2BAM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Salon. come needs to pay closer attention.</div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">This headline on Salon.com uses language that deflects from parents’ responsibilities for the health and well-being of their own children.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Kids can’t get fat without their parents’ full cooperation and participation. Parents who hobble their kids by overfeeding them are setting them up for a whole host of life-long problems, both health and mobility-wise, as well as emotional. Fat kids are far more likely to get bullied.</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/Ga2LBxDD9R8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/03/dont-blame-kids-for-being-fat.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-69589775239907321932018-03-04T10:07:00.000-08:002018-03-04T10:08:14.717-08:00The Best Jeans For Bigger Legs<div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5LIaquGsWcs/WpwuqwF78vI/AAAAAAAABcA/pr-go6QUdt8FYl_r4p68CcM2O1Uxx7MJgCLcBGAs/s1600/levis-TGJ.01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5LIaquGsWcs/WpwuqwF78vI/AAAAAAAABcA/pr-go6QUdt8FYl_r4p68CcM2O1Uxx7MJgCLcBGAs/s400/levis-TGJ.01.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Marlon Brando in The Wild Ones</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The classic original jean, Levi’s 501, is so popular worldwide because they FIT. They fit everybody, amazingly enough. Fat, skinny, bodybuilders, dads, cowboys, university professors. I recall as a boy walking in on my older brother sitting in a hot bath of blue water wearing his new Shrink-to-fit Levi’s 501s and his explaining that this is how you got custom-fit jeans —by molding them to your individual body type with this hot bath method.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">I recall my middle brother’s rocker friends strutting around as 15 year olds in their carefully bath-shrunk 501s and black leather motorcycle jackets and their worshipful admiration for Marlon Brando who is credited with this look in the motorcycle gang film The Wild One.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">I learned long ago that when trying on jeans at the store to take into the fitting room as many of the same size as possible, let’s say 32 waist and 30 length, because each one, although identically marked, fit somewhat differently. My favorite pair is from Levi’s recently-created Vintage Series in which they have brought back Levi’s 501s from different eras, accurate reproductions true in every detail, going back to the 1800s: I own the 1947 version.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the past I’ve bought many a pair at second-hand clothing stores not only because they were cheap but because unlike the&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: large;">new&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: large;">Shrink-to-fit Levi’s, the used ones held no surprises as to how they would ultimately fit. Genuine vintage 501s can bring thousands of dollars on eBay and in certain stores in Japan. I recall owning a pair in the past, bought in a second hand store, that had a copper rivet in the crotch, a feature I recently found to have been discontinued in the 1930s. Those jeans, had I not lost track of them, would be worth thousands today.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The next time you shop for jeans try on some Levi’s 501s.There are a couple of terrific documentaries on YouTube all about the mystique of the Levi’s 501 jean included here.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6R9cAoCyatA/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6R9cAoCyatA?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xmaqrw6GJPM/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xmaqrw6GJPM?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/8wj-D7YQxGs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-best-jeans-for-bigger-legs.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-19629632557676607632018-02-25T18:26:00.002-08:002018-02-25T18:43:52.456-08:00We Can All Relax Now Because GQ Has Let Us Off The Hook.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dQ8Anrg9cNE/WpNwBRkL-dI/AAAAAAAABbo/2kP6tccbP4QE9jpc3GMPcne6vcZW6VxPgCLcBGAs/s1600/gq%2Bimpossible.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="423" data-original-width="560" height="301" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dQ8Anrg9cNE/WpNwBRkL-dI/AAAAAAAABbo/2kP6tccbP4QE9jpc3GMPcne6vcZW6VxPgCLcBGAs/s400/gq%2Bimpossible.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">These are "impossible-to-obtain god bods," declares GQ Magazine.</div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Phew! Finally we can all settle down and chill now that GQ Magazine has officially declared the physiques obtained by Hollywood actors “impossible to obtain.” Oh, wait a minute…if they’re “impossible to obtain” then how did these dudes go about obtaining them? CGI maybe? Don’t know. GQ’s brilliant brand of investigative journalism failed to delve into that conundrum.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.gq.com/story/no-country-for-swole-men" target="_blank">If you are an excuse-making dude you will appreciate this article HERE &nbsp;</a>which once more unintentionally reminds us that fitness is a lifestyle that we—and only we—are in control of.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">We don’t ever read similar articles in GQ or elsewhere by self-pitying guys upset that they don’t drive a Maserati, or yacht around the Mediterranean all summer long. We don’t hear the same phrase “impossible-to-obtain” directed at examples of great marriages or life-long best friends or fulfilling careers or condos with Central Park views, because all of the above require the participation and cooperation of others. Whereas obtaining a great physique requires NOBODY but poor little old them. There’s no one other than themselves to blame when they fill their face with fast food, their lungs with cigaret smoke, and their free time with Netflix.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">And because they are all quite aware that no one is holding them back other than themselves they invent and apply phrases like “impossible-to-obtain” to the one and only thing in life that they truly can obtain, but are just too lazy and unplugged to pursue.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Stand back as the avalanche of excuses thunder by.</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/HkgIoUgK8mQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/02/we-can-all-relax-now-because-gq-has-let.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-14126369914097569252018-02-24T19:35:00.002-08:002018-02-24T19:35:29.461-08:00Working Out When Sick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iTOZTqmd6p0/WpIuusWwGYI/AAAAAAAABbQ/G_dj0fs10_Ar1uXaL4kukxgKrnELZXSjgCLcBGAs/s1600/Sick-Sweat-it-Out-Header.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="207" data-original-width="504" height="162" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iTOZTqmd6p0/WpIuusWwGYI/AAAAAAAABbQ/G_dj0fs10_Ar1uXaL4kukxgKrnELZXSjgCLcBGAs/s400/Sick-Sweat-it-Out-Header.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">[illustration from generation iron.com]</div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The last thing I want to do if I’m sick is work out, so it’s interesting how much I read on the subject, such as, some people really like working out when sick.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is a personal decision—except when it involves a gym or other public place. Intentionally exposing others to your microbes is selfish to the extreme, so don’t do it.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m currently getting over the flu and it’s been 2 weeks of extreme unpleasantness, not to mention loss of income, loss of hard-won muscle mass, and a lot of lost time. There’s no way to pinpoint how I got the flu, whether it was someone at the gym, supermarket or other public place. From what I’ve read we are infectious even before we feel sick, so there’s nobody to blame really.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">I had the flu vaccination and it has been at least 15 years since I had the flu previous, so I felt pretty much impervious as I do have a robust immune system and do not abuse my health, but this time around it got me.</span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you fall ill please do the world a favor and stay home rather than go into work or continue a public life.&nbsp;</span></div><div><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/VEwy40CH04k" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/02/working-out-when-sick.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-25435753860891276242018-02-11T10:33:00.001-08:002018-02-11T11:05:24.525-08:00Apparently Looking and Feeling Good Is Now Some Impossible Standard.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g0rr0sYqIkc/WoCLP4vU0wI/AAAAAAAABa0/ibmzJltQOyYqqJreRN1nmpGIWg2zPvT0gCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-02-11%2Bat%2B8.09.53%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1036" data-original-width="1188" height="346" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g0rr0sYqIkc/WoCLP4vU0wI/AAAAAAAABa0/ibmzJltQOyYqqJreRN1nmpGIWg2zPvT0gCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-02-11%2Bat%2B8.09.53%2BAM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">From healthline.com</div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">As someone who has written for multiple magazines and newspapers through the years I am always disturbed by irresponsible journalism - and I use the term <i>journalism</i> loosely in this example.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">An ongoing theme in the Media in recent years has been to give a voice to the wailings and thrashings of “males” - and I use <i>that</i> term here loosely also - and their hand-wringing enablers who feel an unbearable, unfair and unrealistic pressure to actually become physically fit. To attach a phrase as vile as <b>“impossible standards” </b>—as the Media has so often done lately—to something as basic and essential to one's quality of life as physical fitness is reprehensible.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Apparently there’s a whole subset of losers who, due to movie stars’ physical transformations to take on film roles depicting superheroes, feel brutalized by societal “pressure” to become physically fit themselves. And the media loves to enable this self-humiliation, wallowing, and self-pity rather than chuckle about the feebleness of these put-upon guys’ laughable claim and the low standards they've set for themselves.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Claiming to feel unfairly pressured to look like a superhero or some Instagram fitness model is as silly as claiming to feel unduly pressured to become a billionaire—except that making money totally depends on interactions with other people, whereas any idiot can become physically fit all by himself in the privacy of his own room. Making money depends on the cooperation of others to provide it to you, whereas becoming physically fit is totally on you alone. You may well not be to blame if you’re not making good money right now, but you ARE totally to blame if you look like shit.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: large;">To those complainers I say n</span><span style="font-size: large;">obody’s shoving bad food down your throat. No one has you duct taped to the chair in front of your computer.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">For some reason these same boys don’t cry about society’s expectations that they try to build a successful career or business for themselves, to act as a responsible parent to their children, financially and otherwise, or take a bath once in a while. But they draw the line at physical exertion, at any intimation they should take responsibility for not being physically strong, physically fit, physically able and physically healthy.</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/pLzNYAXFOBY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/02/apparently-looking-and-feeling-good-is.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-62816879297715221162018-02-09T13:24:00.000-08:002018-02-11T11:10:56.647-08:00You Don’t Need To Lift Weights To Build Impressive Muscle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y14eX1tiwVI/Wn4NfvUyKXI/AAAAAAAABac/z-WhoyYOeAcE_ApOlbDFHHqiDWDdOdY0gCLcBGAs/s1600/quads%2Bskater.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="576" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y14eX1tiwVI/Wn4NfvUyKXI/AAAAAAAABac/z-WhoyYOeAcE_ApOlbDFHHqiDWDdOdY0gCLcBGAs/s400/quads%2Bskater.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">USA Olympic Speedskater Joey Mantia's awesome quads.</div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">With the Winter Olympics upon us, have you stopped to take a gander at the legs on those speedskaters? Jesus Christ! Liftin’ Bros can only wish their efforts at the squat rack could give them results even approaching the quads and glutes of speedskaters, their awesome muscle created not from squats, not from leg press machines, but by their own bodily exertions.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">I myself was a speedskater in my teens and I then recall seeing the jacked quads of competitive speedskaters and thinking to myself, “they look deformed.” How times and opinions change…</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The same goes for Olympic gymnasts whose bodies outshine all those Instagram fitness models, not due to lifting dead weight, but due to lifting their own living bodyweight.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">And because these athletes are regularly tested for banned substances, underachievers can take no comfort by claiming these athletes' astonishing amount of jacked muscle is due to drugs, so losers are going to have to retreat back to their dependable "they have superior genetics" and similar smarmy justifications to explain their own lack of achievement.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">There are some impressive videos online by guys who took on the uncomplicated, simple challenge of doing a set number of daily pushups, chinups or pullups for a specific time period—one month, three months, etc., in the privacy of their own homes, to see what results they might achieve, which turned out to be impressive to say the least. Search these out on youtube.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">For those who have not yet managed to get themselves into a gym due to claimed cost, time restrictions and all the rest, here’s this: ANYBODY can stop reading this right now and get down on the floor and pump out as many pushups as they are able. No cost. Takes less than a minute. And then repeat in an hour. Then again tomorrow, and the next day. If you can only do two, then push yourself to do three in a few days from now. Then four, then five. This simple exercise works biceps, triceps shoulders, pecs, abs, quads and glutes.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Stop wishing and start doing. &nbsp;</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/xWBZYg0Rihs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/02/you-dont-need-to-lift-weights-to-build.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-54021323398869607882018-02-09T11:16:00.000-08:002018-02-10T09:29:14.563-08:00Body Fat Feminizes Men<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v_ZCuBVaQM4/Wn3weYPHGAI/AAAAAAAABaE/R0ICjcm1JLA86DQUG-z1z7vkrSKsZisSgCLcBGAs/s1600/fat%2Bto%2Bfit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="576" height="221" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v_ZCuBVaQM4/Wn3weYPHGAI/AAAAAAAABaE/R0ICjcm1JLA86DQUG-z1z7vkrSKsZisSgCLcBGAs/s400/fat%2Bto%2Bfit.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This illustration from www.dailymotion.com illustrates not just "from fat to fit," &nbsp;but just as importantly, "from feminized to masculine." There is no arguing that facially and body-wise, this man has substantially increased his masculinity by shedding feminizing fat and building muscle.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The increase in estrogen (the female hormone) production in males is but one of the many serious fallouts of fat gain. Man-breasts, softened flesh, the feminization of facial features, decreased libido and many other female characteristics in males are directly due to bodyfat gain.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">No distracting behaviors such as the rabid following of football teams, growing a beard, increasing the volume of one's voice, the directing of aggression or anger toward others— no claim to “manly” interests or conduct&nbsp;obscures</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large;">&nbsp;the very obvious tell-tale signs of the feminization of males due to fat gain that others observe in this group.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Fat gain increases the production of the female hormone estrogen in males crucially at the same time testosterone production is decreasing—as it does naturally beginning about age 22. As if the natural falloff of testosterone weren't bad enough, every pound of added body fat accelerates that loss. The result is male feminization.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Many men rather than do what needs to be done—eating healthfully and pursuing a challenging workout at least 3 days a week—deflect from the loss of their masculinity by acting out in ways they associate with traditional masculinity, believing they are successfully deflecting. Few people see themselves as others see them and thus are able to convince themselves that they are presenting a picture far different from the actual public figure the rest of us see.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bodyfat feminizes men.</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><br /><div style="font-size: 24px; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/eaYO20FR5wk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/02/body-fat-feminizes-men.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-83143193150855029192018-02-05T12:37:00.001-08:002018-02-06T09:20:40.963-08:00Avoid The Distraction Of Minutiae<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-noJNL1WJS2c/WnjAd2-bKmI/AAAAAAAABZo/aRd3aDOqUDIL6hDeHwoKd8vW47_07n4YQCLcBGAs/s1600/0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="600" height="296" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-noJNL1WJS2c/WnjAd2-bKmI/AAAAAAAABZo/aRd3aDOqUDIL6hDeHwoKd8vW47_07n4YQCLcBGAs/s400/0.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Focusing on small inconsequential things is an intentional distraction from what needs to be done to reach our fitness goals. People become embroiled in questions like “What’s the best time of day to work out?” or “What protein powder tastes the best?” which reveal these people are resistant to simply buckling down and doing what needs to be done. Online, silly distracting arguments on the subject of fitness rage on even among people who don’t even work out.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The formula is simple: working out regularly with proper form and focused intensity and eating nutritionally are all one has to do to make a very significant change in one’s physique.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">But as humans are wont to do, people take a simple yet uncomfortable set of criteria such as this and complicate it needlessly with minutiae and mindless details to distract from the fact they’re rejecting what really needs to be done.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you are not progressing the way you’d like it is due to improper form and lack of intensity. If you can’t see your abs you need to lose fat. Simple. Uncomplicated. Reasonable. Circling around the issue with excuses and denials obviously gets people nowhere. Get offline and get down on the floor to count off as many pushups as you can manage. Install a chin-up/pull up bar in your doorway and every time you get the urge to sound off, or worse, engage with others sounding off, get up and crank out 10 reps instead.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Direct your energy in productive ways. You’ll get out of it what you put into it.</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/yTY7uqEQRok" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/02/avoid-distraction-of-minutiae.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-12764818374658998202018-02-04T11:02:00.001-08:002018-02-08T10:33:16.268-08:00Smoking Says: “I Hate Myself, But I Hate You Even More.”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YcLyhgV0Q6o/WndXKjyLkPI/AAAAAAAABZU/uBIyH52_ucsklec1Fx8nQfV6RLEN2y13QCLcBGAs/s1600/gq%2Bfrance%2Bpeau.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="576" height="270" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YcLyhgV0Q6o/WndXKjyLkPI/AAAAAAAABZU/uBIyH52_ucsklec1Fx8nQfV6RLEN2y13QCLcBGAs/s400/gq%2Bfrance%2Bpeau.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">GQ France has determined 4 techniques for impeccable skin—using a model with a cigaret in his hand—none of which include the fact than NOTHING destroys skin tone texture and health as irreversibly as does smoking.</div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Setting fire to a bunch of weeds that have been adulterated by cigaret manufacturers with concentrated nicotine and other chemicals to make them all the more potently addictive, then sucking this searingly hot, tar-unfused toxic gas cloud deep into your lungs, scorching your throat and bronchial tubes along the way, destroying the first line of defense against inhaled impurities—<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cilium" target="_blank">the cillia</a>—on contact, hour after hour, day after day, is the ultimate act of self-loathing.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Smokers of course know all this full well, but denial is the universal coping mechanism we all use to justify our stupidity and selfishness, am I right? So they go on inhaling, deep, deep down, gumming up their lungs with black goo, creating cancer lesions, subjecting family members to their deadly pollution, demanding that all those around them accept without complaint their wanton contamination of everyone else’s breathing air,&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: large;">burning their children to death in house fires.</span><span style="font-size: large;">&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: large;">Over 1,000 Americans die annually and 3,000 are permanently scarred by fires caused by smoking, in most cases, </span><i><span style="font-size: large;">someone else's</span></i><span style="font-size: large;"> smoking.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">People lighting up are telling all those in their vicinity that they alone get to determine the cleanliness of the very air that every other creature requires to live. Totally unnoticed, 400,000 Americans die every year due to smoking, their own smoking and that of others. If 400,000 Americans died every year from terrorism, the nation would implode, but apparently 400,000 people dying from smoking is perfectly acceptable.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Nothing so embodies a person’s complete lack of self worth than the dirty slow expensive debilitating repulsive suicide of smoking. Nothing embodies the hubris and literally breathtaking entitlement of those who believe they get to determine the health and comfort—even the very existence—of those they come in contact with.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Smokers stink, by every definition of the word.&nbsp;</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/mMGmtBk5ekk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/02/smoking-says-i-hate-myself-but-i-hate.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-63315346831375003642018-02-03T12:12:00.001-08:002018-02-03T12:13:41.907-08:00Learning From Other People's Mistakes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pGSkkwqF3aY/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pGSkkwqF3aY?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Mike Thurston Corrects Your Mistakes</div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Rather than search online for how to DO a certain exercise, it is far more productive and targeted to search for how NOT to do them.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">YouTube is a phenomenal source for fitness and bodybuilding videos, some good, some bad. Unfortunately some people are more attracted to the philosophies of various Gym Bros, the boasting, loud, trash-talking douches who have no idea what they’re doing, rather than to the many even-keeled level headed trainers. That’s life I guess.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Two very worthwhile online trainers who have proven historically to have a good handle on explaining what you may be doing wrong are Jeff Cavaliere and Mike Thurston.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thurston has a series of videos of what not to do and how to change your current style to achieve proper form HERE. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thurston+gym+mistakes">https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thurston+gym+mistakes</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cavaliere has a huge number of videos online whereby in most of them he is explaining proper form and common mistakes and how to correct them HERE. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/JDCav24">https://www.youtube.com/user/JDCav24</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Proper form adds to the difficulty of the exercise, which is why so many people are lazy about proper form. Proper form makes all the difference between progressing and not progressing.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">In addition to Cavaliere and Thurston’s vids, search on YouTube by typing in the search field “Mistakes” + the name of the bodypart, such as “leg mistakes,” “Biceps Mistakes,” etc.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cOlPpzEaAE8/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cOlPpzEaAE8?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Jeff Cavaliere Corrects Your Biceps Mistakes</div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/P6Q7zzlDQIA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/02/learning-from-other-peoples-mistakes.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-58111055211013957032018-02-03T10:26:00.002-08:002018-02-03T10:27:39.508-08:00It's Frustrating: So Push Past The Plateau<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2xR_OpHyknE/WnX-vU7O6KI/AAAAAAAABZA/1X-OdnJCUysYDQdRilkmSW9oeH2VEryMACLcBGAs/s1600/richwallmauiblog.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="629" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2xR_OpHyknE/WnX-vU7O6KI/AAAAAAAABZA/1X-OdnJCUysYDQdRilkmSW9oeH2VEryMACLcBGAs/s640/richwallmauiblog.png" width="462" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Many people who regularly go to the gym hit a wall whereby after a while they no longer see new positive changes in their body. This is due to the fact that our bodies acclimate to accommodate the stress we put on them. The way to push past this is to change things up, but the problem is, change is uncomfortable.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some, like myself back in my early 30s, have embraced the mindset of “enough is enough”, as in, “I shouldn’t have to constantly increase my workload—because this is hard! How much more should I have to do? How much harder should I have to work?”&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yes, it is hard to change things up, or more accurately, more challenging. Climbing the ladder of success in your career, escalating the passion in a romantic relationship, raising your kids—all these and more require an ever-changing, ever-challenging mindset in order to progress toward our ultimate goal of success, of upward mobility. So why do people think of fitness any differently from all the other worthwhile endeavors in life?</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you are plateauing you need to change it up, but moreover, accept the fact you will ALWAYS have to be changing it up, challenging yourself by adding another set, trying new exercises, increasing intensity, studying and implementing better form, eating less junk, watching more instructional YouTube videos, etc.</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/z1ISfcRKXcQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/02/its-frustrating-so-push-past-plateau.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-24018173436698660342018-01-29T13:20:00.000-08:002018-01-29T13:22:28.421-08:00Only Idiots “Push Through The Pain"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Pg-Sz6j6EU/Wm-P2TRmJYI/AAAAAAAABYo/JTlYlyysc4YFsmHjJ3zA-G2aiOekKpDsgCLcBGAs/s1600/HuffPost.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1216" data-original-width="1258" height="386" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Pg-Sz6j6EU/Wm-P2TRmJYI/AAAAAAAABYo/JTlYlyysc4YFsmHjJ3zA-G2aiOekKpDsgCLcBGAs/s400/HuffPost.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot;; line-height: normal;">How do so many active people not yet know the difference between pain and discomfort—even <a href="http://www.hss.edu/physicians_metzl-jordan.asp#.VVTY27DF_3p"><span style="font-family: &quot;helvetica neue&quot;; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;Dr. Jordan Metzl</span></a></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">, a sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City</span><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot;; line-height: normal;">?</span></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">An example of DISCOMFORT is when you’re performing biceps curls and the lactic acid buildup in your biceps as you intensely eke out the last two reps causes an unpleasant intense burning sensation deep within the biceps muscles. That isn’t pain—that’s <span style="text-decoration: underline;">discomfort.</span> PAIN would be a sharp sensation in your biceps or elbow or shoulder that causes you to yelp and immediately drop the weight.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot;; line-height: normal;">Dr. Metzl is dead wrong when he absurdly states in the Huffington Post article, </span><span style="font-kerning: none;">“My general take is that if it doesn’t hurt a little bit, you’re not getting [more fit].”</span></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; line-height: normal; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">No fitness activity should ever “hurt.”&nbsp; Discomfort? Yes. Pain and hurt? No.</span></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; line-height: normal; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pain is your body telling you to stop. Pain is your body’s way of saying “Your form is bad, you’re doing it wrong” whether you are jogging, crossfitting, weightlifting, swimming—whatever.</span></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; line-height: normal; min-height: 29px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">If I feel a twinge as I work out, I either stop performing the guilty exercise or I take a minute to figure out how I can change something, such as the angle or arc of movement, the amount of weight, the speed with which I am performing the exercise, etc. Often pain is caused by not warming up and/or stretching properly pre-workout. Do all you can to avoid pain. “Working through the pain” can lead to a nagging injury that will may well call a halt to your favorite chosen physical activity—and even permanent damage.</span></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Working through the pain” is the reason why many of the top names from the 1980s are not even recognizable today as even having been bodybuilders.</span></span></div><br /><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/cXK1hblVFto" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/01/only-idiots-push-through-pain.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-25765688547812029032018-01-27T16:43:00.001-08:002018-01-29T10:41:17.589-08:00Trolls Say, "If You Look Better Than Me It's Because You're Cheating"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rDi88VYOJq0/Wm0cfvf0QPI/AAAAAAAABYQ/QaLcZmfGl0MvcfmghQFvOEMIcRNm6_AcQCLcBGAs/s1600/Richb%2526W-Y2K-Haw%2527nShorts72.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="576" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rDi88VYOJq0/Wm0cfvf0QPI/AAAAAAAABYQ/QaLcZmfGl0MvcfmghQFvOEMIcRNm6_AcQCLcBGAs/s640/Richb%2526W-Y2K-Haw%2527nShorts72.jpg" width="538" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Richard Sullivan&nbsp;@ age 51</div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Judging by the many discussions we are exposed to on TV, online and in person, it’s obvious most people seem not to have heard of dictionary.com. People argue heatedly over issues that no one stops to first define. They are applying their own definition to the same word their opponent is using but defining in his own way. People first need to come to an agreement on a definition before wasting hot air arguing any given topic.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">One such word is “cheating,” as it is used pertaining to the fitness and bodybuilding world. Every YouTube video featuring someone who has excelled physically is followed by the predictable comments of woebegone underachievers and failures who scream “Steroids!!” as their go-to justification for not personally measuring up to the personality being featured. And they always state this in the form of an accusation, as in claiming that someone utilizing steroids is bad for “cheating.”</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cheating? Cheating <span style="text-decoration: underline;">who</span> exactly? By definition (there’s that word again) people not in competition can’t “cheat”: it takes two or more for someone to “cheat.” The screamers are therefore revealing they consider themselves to be embroiled in some fantasy competition with a “competitor” who is completely unaware of them, and moreover that they’re losing to him. This alone is creepy.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Taken to its craziest extent, someone who envies fit bodies but doesn’t work out at all can claim that those who do work out are cheating. Or those who do not consume protein drinks or supplements can claim that those who do so are cheating. Or that those who eat crap can claim those who eat nutritionally are cheating. The fraternal twin of “cheating” is “unfair advantage,” as in their fantasy competitor’s superior genetics, more free time, more money, younger age, lack of injuries, access to mentors, and all the other excuses so well rehearsed by those who do not achieve.</span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">When solitary individuals are working hard to be the best that they can be, there’s no such thing as cheating—except in the minds of those losers who through their own lack of effort and persistence do not compare or measure up, and therefore need someone to blame.</span></div><div><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/7C2SKfc0c7U" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/01/if-you-look-better-than-me-its-because.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-34419779281152858062018-01-27T11:18:00.004-08:002018-01-27T11:31:04.861-08:00Food Cravings Are Psychological<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NUkYNSbe_iQ/WmzQh97DF6I/AAAAAAAABX4/sXSOrwDbpfgZTeuqLXo7hEX_TbPHD6PyACLcBGAs/s1600/Roselani%2BIce%2BCream-02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="265" data-original-width="265" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NUkYNSbe_iQ/WmzQh97DF6I/AAAAAAAABX4/sXSOrwDbpfgZTeuqLXo7hEX_TbPHD6PyACLcBGAs/s400/Roselani%2BIce%2BCream-02.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">As I write this I am at the lowest level on my personal food craving scale, meaning I have no cravings at the present time. It's a relief. I learned long ago not to keep favorite snacks in the house, which works for me as I will never get in my car and run to the store to satisfy a craving, whereas many people will do eactly that, to their detriment.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">During a food craving period I will temporarily “regret” not having picked up that bag of Snickers minis or ice cream when I was in the store. Long term, however, I’m always very happy I did not. I food shop after the gym, in my gym clothes, when my pride in my fitness, how I look and feel, is at its highest point, which allows me to not even go down the snack aisle at the supermarket. I bring a protein shake to the gym in a thermos and drink it in the car on the way to the market so I will not be unduly hungry. Food shopping when you’re hungry, as most people know, means making impulsive, unwise and unproductive food decisions based on cravings.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Making a shopping list and sticking to it is the only way to shop healthfully. Going to the supermarket with no list and no plan leads to many an impulsive and unwise purchase which will derail your nutrition and weight goals.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">When a craving gets in your head and won’t let go, this is not due to actual hunger or the body’s need for some ingredient in the food that’s being craved, but rather it’s just another dysfunctional thing we have to recognize, analyze, and excise.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">I realize my food cravings are a product of some lack, some upset or anxiety. The current lack of cravings signifies a peaceful settled calm. Luckily I do not have an addictive personality, but when I’ve experienced a food craving that lasts for days, or even weeks, I get a glimpse of what addictive personalities must be dealing with on a regular basis.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The ability to connect a food craving with some current upset or some lack in one’s life will help defuse this mindless desire to binge. Nobody has the physical need for a pan of brownies, but rather the shot of the feel-good dopamine that the brownies provide. It’s a tough problem to deal with when you’re in the middle of it, but understanding ourselves, the what and the why and the how, is really the key to a happier, more fit life.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/GHkwjHlQTFw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/01/food-cravings-are-psychological.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-3501582544690059602018-01-24T12:24:00.000-08:002018-01-24T12:24:22.455-08:00Don’t Resist Resistance Bands <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MVFaMkt-6Ac/WmjrKbjLjYI/AAAAAAAABXg/qSHWqS4F_04wDxnAf3Wb__pZWNNzMu8ogCLcBGAs/s1600/janicki%2Bchest%2Bbands.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="648" height="251" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MVFaMkt-6Ac/WmjrKbjLjYI/AAAAAAAABXg/qSHWqS4F_04wDxnAf3Wb__pZWNNzMu8ogCLcBGAs/s400/janicki%2Bchest%2Bbands.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Eric Janicki's chest workout utilizes resistance bands.</div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">In an earlier post I highly recommended resistance bands after having shunned them for years. My previous flawed thinking had been that they must surely be less effective than weights even though I had never seriously put them to the test.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">After more than a year now of use two or three times a week I can confidently state that resistance bands build REAL muscle as effectively as dumbbells and barbells—because resistance is resistance, no matter the tool chosen.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Lots of people make little nor no progress at the gym despite all the machines and weights available to them because of poor form, lack of intensity and a lack of desire to LEARN how to best and most effectively use the gym equipment. Few people bother to do research outside the gym, and thus keep on doing what isn’t working and becoming frustrated with their lack of progress.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The same is true of resistance bands, or any fitness regime for that matter. After watching dozens of videos on youtube, many featuring bodybuilders using resistance bands, I’ve realized how few of these instructors actually know how to put resistance bands to their most effective use. I watch as they go through a lackadaisical resistance band routine and realize they don’t know what they’re talking about as their routine does not mimic in intensity or effective form their barbell/dumbbell/machine workouts in their other videos.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Resistance bands are unique in that they allow for practical correction mid-rep due to their physical properties of expansion as opposed to the dead weight of a dumbbell. Employing a dumbbell, for instance, there is usually a position within the rep where there is little resistance, little stress on the muscle, as opposed to the same movement performed with a resistance band in which there is unrelenting resistance throughout the entire movement.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Resistance bands also permit a “smoother ride” throughout the movement and better control than a barbell or dumbbell. I have found that it defeats the purpose of the resistance band to strictly employ the exact movement for the dumbbell or barbell version of the same exercise. Resistance bands are unique in that they allow for mid-rep corrections and adjustments that if made using a dumbbell might cause injury. Just like when you first began weight training, it took you a while to accustom yourself and learn how best to engage the weight or machine to maximum usefulness. The same goes for resistance bands.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Give resistance bands a try, and a chance to show their effectiveness. Your fitness routine is a part of your lifestyle and you should always be open to trying new ideas. That’s how progress is made in the creation of new muscle.</span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/6geA3MFvU_U" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/01/dont-resist-resistance-bands.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-78263413857029807822018-01-22T11:37:00.001-08:002018-01-22T11:59:52.488-08:00Building Muscle In Your 70s And Beyond<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qgz2WuCYEBU/WmZASq2bWsI/AAAAAAAABXI/a3UyA82tvxc1thWYHIRfyezfUn9fB5d7wCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-01-22%2Bat%2B9.48.17%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1088" data-original-width="612" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qgz2WuCYEBU/WmZASq2bWsI/AAAAAAAABXI/a3UyA82tvxc1thWYHIRfyezfUn9fB5d7wCLcBGAs/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-01-22%2Bat%2B9.48.17%2BAM.png" width="354" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;\22 georgia\22 &quot; , &quot;\22 times new roman\22 &quot; , serif; text-align: start;"><a href="http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2014/06/bob-delmonteques-los-angeles-times.html" target="_blank">Bob Delmonteque at age 84: Read his story HERE.</a></span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Who are these know-it-all anonymous jerks who proclaim with unquestionable authority that older people, both men AND women, cannot build muscle? Worse, how stupid are those who read this shit, then further broadcast and disseminate it without even doing any research of their own?</span><span style="font-size: large;">&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The examination and questioning of people’s motives is something not done nearly enough in life, as I have experienced personally with friends and family who also accept and regurgitate the opinions of others on various subjects without question. “I read it someplace” is not a validation. This is where the term “sheeple” or, people who mindlessly follow like so many sheep, originates.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hearing some self-appointed “authority” in his 20s or 30s spring up in the media to lecture older people about what they can and cannot accomplish is the height of hubris. Much of what we see in the media is not original, but rather the parroting and regurgitation of some other media story found elsewhere, neither tested nor challenged. A great example is the infamous New York Times feature from 2016 in which contestants on the TV show Biggest Loser were said to have regained all their weight due to waging a winless war against their own body. The premise was ludicrous and received widespread attention elsewhere in the media. Nowhere I have looked did I find anyone refuting this nonsense, but rather just spreading the nonsense far and wide, such as did ABC’s Good Morning America.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">YES, you can build muscle even into your late 90s as proven by a study conducted by Miriam Nelson of Tufts University. In this study, gym-quality leg machines were brought into a home for the aged.Ten residents volunteered, men and women, between the ages of 88 and 96. Not only did all participants gain lean muscle mass and strength, but one who previously required a cane was able to throw it away and walk unaided, while another participant previously dependent on a walker was able to graduate to using a cane.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The motives of these naysayers are curious. What do they have to gain by spreading lies and disproved claims, especially since they too will be old one day? If you’re getting up there in age and relying on old wive’s tales and trolls’ nonsense as your excuse to reject the value of an ongoing fitness routine, the Biggest Loser is you.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Take a gander at the NYTimes video that accompanied this loopy "Biggest Loser" feature:</span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Qz-MD7UoXCI/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qz-MD7UoXCI?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><br /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/WrV1EgvA4E0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com3http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/01/building-muscle-in-your-70s-and-beyond.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6465089113810826948.post-18517004896723195222018-01-20T09:53:00.001-08:002018-01-20T09:56:10.044-08:00Proper Form. What’s That?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fGG26ttEBBs/WmOCGMCvf-I/AAAAAAAABWw/dqMsHbmqY6E2rq15rZsvpek-UO_QmHlrwCLcBGAs/s1600/great%2Bpose%2Boutstretched72.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="648" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fGG26ttEBBs/WmOCGMCvf-I/AAAAAAAABWw/dqMsHbmqY6E2rq15rZsvpek-UO_QmHlrwCLcBGAs/s400/great%2Bpose%2Boutstretched72.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Are you going to the trouble, preparation and expense of getting yourself to the gym, then sabotaging your workouts by ignoring proper form?</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Proper form makes all the difference between progress and, well, plateauing, meaning, no progress. Proper form is not a mystery, yet many are clueless on this.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Numerous times I have seen someone working out next to a person who is admirably fit, and doing the exact same exercise—for instance, a guy doing biceps curls who has a terrific set of arms. Yet the person next to him doing the same exercise seems totally unaware that he might learn something from Mr. Big Arms. He is so checked out that it doesn’t seem he even realizes he is performing the same exercise as Mr. Big Arms, much less he might watch, imitate and learn.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>My point is most people using bad form have no idea.</b> It doesn’t even occur to them they are using bad form. It doesn’t occur to them that the guys with the awesome bodies are doing something they are not, and therefore they might pay attention to these achievers and learn by example.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal; min-height: 28px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you haven’t made progress within the last month, you need to change it up. When you use proper form you’ll see a big difference, not in the following month, but that <b><i>very same day</i></b> at the end of your workout by achieving a good pump. If your arms don’t look noticeably improved immediately following your arm workout, it’s because your form is poor.</span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thanks to YouTube and its thousands of workout videos, there is no longer any excuse for poor form, yet poor form remains endemic in gyms and home workouts. Instead of looking for a “new” exercise due to frustration over lack of progress, know that every classic exercise works wonders if performed with proper form.</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GeezerciseGrowingYoungerAfter40/~4/kSu0Lb9_GoU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Richard Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417621337311967041noreply@blogger.com0http://geezercise.blogspot.com/2018/01/proper-form-whats-that.html